Honda's New Robotic Mower Keeps Your Garden Looking Awesome Without Any Effort From You

OK, so you could pay a gardener to do it for you, but then you run the risk of him copping off with your wife while you're out at work. Not so with this little robotic fella. Honda's new Miimo robotic mower will do all the hard work for you, and not complain about it in the process.

Looking like a Roomba that's put on a bit of chub, the Miimo handles all the mowing for you, taking little 2-3cm bits off the grass a couple of times a week so the whole thing is immaculate. Apparently that kind of pruning is even better for the grass, so your lawn will thank you too. You don't even have to empty this sucker, because it just dumps the tiny clippings straight onto the lawn to act as compost, plus it'll go and charge itself up when it needs a bit of juice.

It'll totter about your lawn in one of three modes -- random, directional, or mixed -- to suit your specific patch of the green stuff. The Miimo also features a fan that actually sucks the grass up so that all the cuts are even and uniform, which should please those OCD suffers among us. It'll even handle slopes thanks to a gyroscope, and will follow the contours of your garden, bounded by dug-in wires, so your petunias will be safe from whirling blades.

The only real catch, is the price. The cheapest Miimo, the HRM300, will set you back a not insignificant £1,990, while the bigger, beefier HRM500 will burn through £2,235 of your gadget money. Considering this thing is incredibly easy for your jealous neighbours to pinch, it's a good job it's got a pin-code lock that needs to be cleared before it'll work again after being picked up. Still, £2,000 is a small price to pay to stop your wife playing away with the gardener, while still not having to get off your arse and mow the damn lawn.